Moving On
by Mogombo97
Summary: The doctors venture to move on with their lives after the devastating plane crash that changed all their lives. Relationships have been altered, possibly for the better, possibly for the worse. Surviving a plane crash isn't the worse thing that can happen to someone. A/U story but follows a lot of cannon.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Mark had been walking around Seattle Grace Mercy West like a zombie all day. He was by no means himself and Derek had noticed. He had noticed but decided that if his best friend wanted to speak to him he would.

Derek Shepherd and Mark Sloan had been best friends since they were seven years old. They did everything together, they went to school together, college together, med school together and they even went for the same woman at one point which destroyed their friendship for a while, but they managed to get past it.

With everything they had been through, there was one thing Derek had learned, and that was, sometimes Mark needed to work through what was going on in his head himself before he would be able to speak to anyone about it. When he was ready Mark would come to him.

Mark was charting at the nurse's station when Jackson came up to him. He was so far away from reality in his own thoughts, he didn't even notice his protégé and definitely didn't hear him calling him.

"Dr. Sloan". After calling him a couple times to no avail, Jackson poked him to get his attention.

"Avery? What do you want?" Mark snapped, glaring at his resident. He immediately regretted it, after all Jackson wasn't his problem, but he was in no mood for apologising. Instead he softened his gaze and waited for Jackson to tell him what he was looking for.

Taking no notice of the curt response he had gotten, after all he had noticed that Mark wasn't himself today, Jackson pretended Mark hadn't snapped at him.

"I was wondering if I could come with you to Boise, it is a big surgery and I want to watch"

Mark was confused, Jackson was one of the most sought-after potential Plastics and Otolaryngology fellows in the country at the moment, why he would want to observe this surgery instead of preforming surgery here he didn't know.

"You want to come observe me preform surgery instead of preforming it yourself her while I'm gone?"

"Yes, it is a major surgery and I feel there is more I could learn by coming with then staying here"

In his current mood Mark couldn't really care why Avery wanted to come with, but he if the kid feels he could learn more coming with than staying then fair enough.

"Alright, we leave here at ten tonight, be ready to go", with that he walked off to go get something to eat.

Alex had been looking for Arizona for a while by the time he found her. He had been all excited to tell her that Hopkins wanted him but when he found her in an empty supply closest crying that all went out the window.

"What's wrong?"

Arizona was startled at the sound of his voice, she hadn't heard or seen him come in, but yet there he was. She wiped the tears from her eyes and shook her head.

"Nothing", she choked out and tried to leave but he blocked the exit. "Move Karev"

Alex stood his ground. "Not until you tell me whats wrong? Is it Hunt? I though you were over crying whenever someone with authority made you mad?"

If he wouldn't get out of her way, she could at least change the subject. "Callie said you were looking for me earlier what's up?"

"Nice try, but you aren't changing the subject that easy not whats wrong Robbins?"

"He's going to die"

Alex was confused, he wasn't aware of any of her patients that were terminal and he certainly had never seen her cry in a supply closest over a terminal patient before. It was horrible, the worst part of the job, but a part of the job. She is the one who taught him that.

"Who, the Peterson kid? I thought he came out of Surgery with flying colours?"

Tears were streaming down Arizona's blotchy face again, she must have looked a mess and if it had been any other resident other than Alex she would be embarrassed.

"No, he did, I'm not on about him. I'm on about Nick, Altman and Yang weren't able to do anything for him. There was too much damage to his heart, he is going to die and there is nothing anybody can do about it"

At this point she broke down completely and throwing away any thought of Hopkins from his head, Alex reached out and pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight, letting her get it off her chest and cry it out.

They stayed like that for about five minutes, Arizona holding onto Alex for dear life, and Alex rubbing her back until she cried herself out. Patting his back, she pulled away thanking him with a warm smile as she wiped the last remnants of tears from her face.

"Okay I'm done, now will you tell me why you were looking for me? Please tell me its good news, I don't think I can handle any more bad news today"

Remembering why he was looking for her in the first place, Alex had a huge smile on his face. "Hopkins is adding another position for a peds fellow just for me, they want me"

Arizona was stumped, she didn't know what to say, she couldn't lose Alex, he was the best she had ever seen, he was the best she had ever trained, he was hers. "What do I have to do to get you to stay"

Alex was shocked, he thought she would be happy for him, after all Hopkins is where she went. Instead she is giving him evil eyes like she is about to hit him.

"What?"

Getting more annoyed Arizona barked at him, "You heard me Karev, what do you want from me?"

"Robbins, I don't want anything off you I…"

She cut him off before he could continue, "Cut the bull Alex what's it going to take? Higher Salary? Your own office? Research lab? What is it you want?"

Alex was starting to get worried, he had never seen her this worked up before. "Robbins, there is nothing I want from you, I already spoke to Hunt, I'm not going anywhere", he rushed out before she could cut him off again.

She just stood there shocked, "What do you mean you already spoke to Hunt?"

"Since Hopkins were offering me so much, it put me in a position to re-negotiate my contract, he is giving me everything they were and more"

"More?"

"Well yeah, don't get me wrong Hopkins is amazing, having them want me this much is kind of unbelievable but you are the foremost Paediatric surgeon in the country, there is nobody that could teach me more than you. You are my mentor Robbins, not anyone in Hopkins"

There was a god chance Arizona was going to cry again but happy tears this time. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him another hug.

"Admit it, you'd miss me too much if you left", she laughed.

Alex pushed her off him and turned around to leave. "Whatever, look I got to go get ready to leave for Boise, I'll see you later".

Lexie barged into her sister's room and collapsed on her bed in a heap. "I can't do it Mer, I can't go to Boise with him"

Meredith stuck her head out of her bathroom to look at her sister. "Him? Mark you mean?"

Lexie looked at her with disgust, "Yes Mark who else, I hardy mean Derek"

Meredith walked over to the bed and climbed on to it next to Lexie. Not sure she wanted to know the answer she asked, "Why can't you?"

Pulling one of the pillows from under her head and covering her face with it, she let out a very muffled "Because I told him I'm in love with him"

Not hearing a word of what her sister had said, Meredith lifted the pillow off Lexie's face and gave her a look that said "try again".

Lexie sat up against the headboard, pulled her knees to her chest and refused to look Meredith in the eye.

"The other night I was leaving the hospital and he was outside. I thanked him for letting me assist in surgery and he told me I did a good job. Then I just stared at him, so naturally he asked was I okay.

Then it just slipped out, I said it, I told him I love him. Once I had there was no going back and it just all poured out. All of it, how I can't sleep, I can't eat or breath. I told him he is all I think about. I compared him to a disease Mer, I said I was infected with him.

Then before he could say anything Julia arrived, he looked like a deer in headlights, then thanked me for my candour. He thanked me for my fucking candour Mer. Then just walked away with Julia"

Before Meredith could say anything, Lexie started crying uncontrollably. "I love him Meredith, he is it for me McSteamy is my McDreamy. I love him and he doesn't love me. He loves Julia. Why wouldn't he she is an attending not a lowly resident, she probably wants marriage and kids"

"Don't you want marriage and kids too though?"

"I do, but I always pushed him away whenever he brought it up because I was scared, now it's too late. I pushed him away one too many times and I've lost him forever"

Not knowing what else to do, knowing realistically there was nothing else to do Meredith threw an arm around her sister's shoulder and let her cry herself out on her shoulder.

"I know this sucks Lex, but Derek needs you in Boise you are his best neuro resident and you can't let Mark stand in the way of your career. Its not fair to you or Mark. Whether he loves you or not he wouldn't want you giving up such a major surgery like this one"

Lexie took a deep breath, sat up and nodded. "You're right, I know you are, I just don't know what to do. It hurts Mer it really hurts"

There was nothing Meredith could say that would make this better so she went with the only thing she could think to say. "I know it does Lex, I'm sorry"

Looking at the clock on the locker next to the bed, Lexie saw that it was time for Zola to be woken up form her nap if there was any hope of her sleeping for Richard that night.

"I'll get Zola up, you finish packing. I could do with some cuddle time with the worlds cutest baby"

Teddy Altman was in the middle of scrubbing out of a very successful heart lung transplant with Yang and couldn't help asking. "You decided where you're going to go for your fellowship yet, I hear Mayo is back in the running?"

Christina kept her head down focusing on the song in her head she used to make sure she scrubbed long enough. Had she been an intern Altman probably would have waited until they finished scrubbing to ask her any question, but any fifth resident who was about to become a fellow who scrubbing wasn't second nature for, had no business being a surgeon.

"No, not yet"

Sensing her hesitation on the subject, Teddy thought it best to change the subject to something a little lighter.

"You all set for Boise, you know its not many cardio chiefs would let their potential fellows be the only cardiothoracic surgeon on a case like this". As soon as she mentioned fellow she regretted it but figured she had said it now so might as well go with it.

"Not many potential fellows are as good as I am"

Teddy couldn't help but smile, she was right. Christina Yang was one of the best, no scratch that, the best resident she had come across in her career. Her aptitude for all things cardio was astonishing, she didn't know what she was going to do if she didn't stay. She had started relying on Christina more than any attending in her department.

"Okay, you've got me there. What time do you leave?"

"Ten, so I should probably get my stuff or I'll be late, see you later".

"Good luck, make me proud". Christina gave a curt nod to Teddy before leaving the scrub room. She made her way to her locker in the resident's lounge to grab her bag and case notes before meeting everyone outside to get the shuttle bus to the airport.

"Avery, what are you doing here?"

Jackson turned around to face Christina at the sound of his name. "I'm coming with, to observe"

Smiling at him, "Not as confident you're ready to preform surgeries by yourself huh?"

Jackson couldn't help laughing at the light-hearted joke, "No I am, its just some of us aren't arrogant enough to think we have nothing left to learn"

"You mean you know you're not as good in your field as I am in mine?"

With his signature Avery smile knowing he was beaten he replied, "Shut up Yang"

Meredith had been able to avoid Mark until they got to the plane, where, when getting on she bumped in to him. Thinking it was his fault he turned around and apologised to her. She however gave him a look he had heard Derek describe as Medusa like. "Thank you for your candour"

Before he could even question her, she had sat down next to Lexie and that's when it clicked. Meredith was pissed at him for the way he responded to Lexie the other night. Of course, she would have told her sister, he had been a jackass after all, yeah, he had been caught off guard and yeah Julia had just arrived but still. Thank you for your candour? What was he thinking.

He took a seat next to a window away from everyone else. Lexie had been on his mind all day and he just wanted to be alone. He clipped his seatbelt together and stared out the window waiting for take-off.

Derek looked up from his notes about an hour into the flight to see that Mark hadn't even taken his notes out of his bag. He thought whatever had Mark in a slump couldn't be that bad but if the prospect of a surgery like the one they were about to preform couldn't cheer up his best friend, something was wrong.

He undid his belt and walked over to the seat across from Mark, smacking Mark's knee gently to get his attention as he sat down and put on his belt. "Okay what is it?"

Mark looked up at Derek and looked disinterested in having a conversation with him. Then looked back out the window. "Okay you can either tell me whats going on or I will sit here for the entire flight and go on about how cute Zola is"

Mark chuckled lightly, but refused to look "You know Shep, now that I have my own child that threat won't work, besides Zola is adorable not cute, you should know that".

"It used work whenever I'd threaten to go on about our army of nieces and nephews, don't get me wrong I know you love them, but you were never interested in talking about how cute or adorable they were. Now tell me what's wrong"

Mark looked at Derek and sighed, "Lexie"

Derek sat back in his seat and left out a breath, not sure he liked where this was going. "What about her?"

"She told me she loves me the other night and I was a jackass about it and I can't get her out of my head"

"What do you mean you were a jackass? This is why I wanted you to stay away from her in the first place, this is why she has been crying so much the last few days". He knew straight away he shouldn't have said that when Mark looked like he had just both had his heart ripped from his chest and been stabbed with a scalpel at the same time.

"She's been crying?"

It was very seldom Derek had ever heard Mark sound so pained, he could count the occasions on one hand. Derek's Dad's death, the conversation they had where Derek decide to forgive him for everything with Addison, Sloan giving up her baby for adoption and the last time he told him about Lexie leaving him.

"What happened Mark?"

Mark took a sip of water before reliving that night again. "I was waiting outside the hospital for Julia a couple nights ago, when Lexie came out. She thanked me for letting her assist in some surgery, it was only a couple of days ago and my head is so wrecked I can't even remember what one"

Derek sat there just listening to him. He left out a long-pained sigh before continuing.

"Anyway, she paused as if she wanted to say something but didn't at the same time so I asked her was she okay. Then she just broke and let it all out. She went on about how much she loves me, how she can't sleep, eat, breath or do anything because she is infected by me.

She told me that while Jackson is this great guy without a grandchild, or a child with his lesbian B.F. F's it was doomed from the start because she loves me. I swear to God Derek I was in shock. I had wanted to hear those words for so long. I never told you but I wanted to propose after the shooting, I was going to until Callie convinced me not to.

I love her Derek, Julia wants to give me everything I want, a wife, children, the lot and she is ready to do it all. The only problem is she isn't Lexie. I was going to tell her as much, just as Julia arrived. I panicked and said thank you for your candour before walking off, I broke up with Julia when we got back to mine but still.

I mean seriously Derek, thank you for your candour, what the fuck was I thinking?"

Derek just took everything in. "So, you love Lexie, she is it for you, the one that makes the infamous Mark Sloan want to hang up the man whore title and settle down?"

"I love her more than I have ever loved anyone or anything in my life, I don't know what to do"

Derek smiled, "I'm going to let you in on a secret, you panicked and this understandable, I still panic when it comes to |Meredith. It looks like the Grey women seem to have that effect on us. What you do is, you stand up right now, walk over to her and tell her"

"You reckon?"

"Yes, life is too short to not go after what you want and I'm sick of seeing the two of you mope around the hospital miserable when all you need to do to be happy is get your shit together"

Before Mark could unclasp his belt there was a massive explosion from outside the plane, then out of nowhere the plane went into a nosedive and everyone on board went crashing down with the plane.

 **A/N:** I have been going back and forth in my head for the guts of the last six months about writing this fic and I've finally decided to bite the bullet and do it. I really hope you like it so far and continue to read it. Please feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited and followed this story so far it means a lot. I hope you continue to enjoy it and please review if you have a minute to do so. I apologise for not updating in so long, I had a lot of writers block with this chapter. I hope to start updating more regularly from now on. I am in no way, shape or form a Doctor, so I apologise for any medical inaccuracies.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of |Grey's Anatomy. This piece of fictional work is made purely for fun and not profit, no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters are of my own creation as well as the storyline. Any similarities between this and any other works on this site or any other are unintended and purely coincidental.

Chapter Two

Meredith was woken to the sound of screaming. The first thought she had was it is too bright and she had to close her eyes again. She was confused, she didn't know who was screaming. It couldn't be Zola, Zozo didn't sound like that.

She tried to sit up but couldn't. Something was weighing her down. She tried lifting her head and felt a sharp pain. She reached up to feel where the pain was and felt something sticky.

This couldn't be right who was screaming, what was on top of her and why was her head sticky. She tried squinting one eye open to take a look at her fingers. It was only when she saw the blood coming from her head that everything came crashing back. Crashing not unlike the plane she was just in.

She opened both eyes fully to look around. Ignoring the pain her eyes were in trying to adjust to the brightness. There were bodies scattered amongst broken plane parts all around her. She noticed Arizona by what used to be the cockpit looking at her leg and realised who was screaming.

Jackson and Alex were unconscious, at least that's what she hoped and not that they were dead only a couple feet from her. Christina was starting to stir not too far from Arizona but uncomfortably close to the fire that was still blazing from the main crash sight.

Mark was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Derek.

"Derek"

She tried once more to sit up to go and move her, forgetting that the reason she couldn't in the first place is because something was on top of her. She looked down and saw her sister spread across her mid-section. She also saw her sister's tibia and fibula bent at a 90-degree angle.

For the time being all thoughts of her husband were gone, she had to help Lexie.

"Lexie", no response

"Lexie", she tried poking her this time, still no response.

Fear was starting to course through Meredith's veins. It hadn't been that long since she got used to having a sister she couldn't be dead.

"Alexandra Caroline Grey wake up, please wake up". Meredith shook her this time, and after what felt like an eternity, Lexie's eyes opened.

"Meredith? What happened? Where are…", before she could continue she left out an earth-shattering scream.

Meredith was hoping adrenaline would keep Lexie from feeling any of the pain that she was clearly going to be in.

The first thing that Mark noticed was that he was alone with Derek. The last thing he remembered was the two of them flying out of the back of the plane. He had no idea where anybody else was. All he knew was they were stuck in a forest and Derek's hand did not look good.

That was putting it lightly, his hand was somehow now a part of the plane and getting it out was going to be next to impossible without doing possibly life altering damage.

He couldn't help but laugh to himself at that thought, as if being in a plane crash wasn't life altering enough.

He heard Derek start to groan and knew that he was after regaining consciousness.

"M-Mark what, what happened?"

"Plane crashed" short and simple reply, as always when trying to figure out something Mark never said more than the bare minimum. Right now, he was trying to figure out how to get Derek's hand out of the scrap of metal, as well trying to figure out how they were going to get out of there.

"Is everyone alright? Meredith where is Meredith?"

"Don't know"

"What do you mean do you don't know?"

"I mean I don't know"

Mark wasn't even looking at him, which just pissed Derek off.

"Mark, cut your fucking shit, what is happening?"

At the sound of Derek shouting at him, Mark turned around with a dead look in the back of his eyes and shouted back.

"I just told you what happened, the plane crashed, we were in a plane crash. We flew out of the back before anyone else so I have absolutely no fucking idea where anyone is not Meredith and not Lexie so just shut up just SHUT UP".

At his best friend's outburst Derek just stayed quiet and it was then he noticed his hand, then he started trying to pull it out. He tried for a couple seconds before the pain was too severe.

"I'm working on it, I will get your hand out just let me think"

Arizona eventually calmed down enough to speak to the pilot Jerry. That is after he made enough noise that she knew he was not only there but alive.

"Hey, you're all Doctors', right? I can't feel my legs "

"Yeah, we are, my name is Arizona, yours is Jerry right, you said so before we took off?"

Jerry nodded and waited a second for her to respond, before he realised that she couldn't see him. "Yeah it is"

"Right, well Jerry I need you to keep still okay? If you can't feel your legs it could be something serious, it might not be, but better safe than sorry"

After hearing this Jerry stopped fidgeting and tried to remain still. "We shouldn't be here long, someone is bound to come looking for us when they realise we having landed"

Hearing that comforted Arizona, a little, all she could think about was getting home to Callie and Sofia. That and how the hell the plane went down in the first place.

"Jerry, what happened anyway how did we crash?"

There was a long pause before Jerry answered her. "Th-the engine blew, I did what I could but that much pressure on one engine caused the second one to go, at that point there was nothing I could do. I'm surprised any of us are still alive"

They were alive yes, but given everything that just happened, nothing would ever be the same again. If she didn't get back to Callie soon, she was probably going to lose her leg.

Given the look of her leg, the fact she could see her bones clear as day as well as the amount of dirt around her, she was probably going to get a massive infection that even her amazing wife wouldn't be able to fix.

When Christina woke up, at first like Meredith she didn't realise what had happened straight away. She thought the heat from the fire was just her room being hot.

Then when her eyes adjusted to her new surroundings she noticed what was going on. She rolled over to push herself up and collapsed under the pressure she put on her arm.

Wincing in sheer mind numbing she used her good arm to push herself up and look around until she saw Meredith trying to comfort Lexie, and saw the unnatural shape in Lexie's leg.

Straight away she wasn't a victim of a plane crash, she was Christina, she was Dr. Yang. Subconsciously she made the decision to make that be how she was going to get through this.

"Meredith, we need to reset her leg"

Not noticing that her best friend had stood up never mind walked over, Meredith got a fright at the sound of her voice, but none the less was delighted to hear it.

"I know, you're right, give me a hand moving her, will you?"

Christina bent down and with her good arm helped Meredith shift Lexie to the ground. Noticing her only using one hand Meredith looked up to face Christina with a look that said, you have about five seconds to tell me whats wrong.

"I think my shoulder is dislocated, will you put it back in place?"

Meredith stood up, grasped Christina's arms and paused,

"You know this is going to hurt like hell"

"Just shut up and do it Mer"

Whenever she had to pop a shoulder back into place while on an Ortho rotation, the patient would have been given something to make sure it didn't hurt as much. It also meant you would hear the shoulder pop back.

In the middle of nowhere after somehow surviving a plane crash, the only way Meredith was able to tell was by the agonising scream that escaped Christina's lips.e

"I'm going to go look for the first aid kit and see if there is a sling in it"

Christina nodded and watched Meredith walk away before looking to Lexie who was now quietly whimpering in pain. "Lexie you know as well as I do that this is going to hurt, but god knows when we are getting out of here and if we don't reset your leg you could lose it."

Meredith came back with a sling for Christina and helped her put her shoulder in it.

"I've got this, you need to go check on Alex and Jackson"

Christina stood up and looked over to where Alex and Jackson were, it didn't look good. Despite all the screaming they hadn't woken up yet. After she left, Meredith turned to her sister and handed her a t-shirt.

"Put that in your mouth, I can't listen to you scream like that again Lex"

Lexie gave an apologetic look to her sister knowing if the roles were reversed she would hate to hear Meredith be in so much pain. She took the t-shirt and put it in her mouth.

After going over all she could remember from her Ortho rotations she grasped onto her sister's leg. "I know I shouldn't say this, but I kind of wish Callie was here to do this"

Despite all the pain she was in Lexie left out a small laugh before chomping down, hard on the t-shirt in her mouth and trying not to scream from the pain of Meredith resetting her leg.

Meanwhile back in Seattle Owen was just about to go into Surgery. Now of course no Doctor would ever wish pain or suffering on anyone, that being said if someone was going to need surgery, Owen was delighted he was going to get to preform it.

It had been nearly a solid month since he preformed any sort operation. He loved being Chief of Surgery, but he missed the OR. Derek had been right, the amount of paperwork that came with the job was ridiculous.

"Dr. Hunt, you have two new messages from Boise, the nurses schedule needs to be done as well as the on-call schedule"

Owen stopped in his tracks. He had really hoped for once he could get to an OR without being stopped to do something bureaucratic, but today would not be that day. He turned around to face his assistant.

"The nurses schedule is done, I just want to have one final look at it later, the on-call list is mostly finished and send all calls to voicemail and I will check all messages when I come out of surgery"

"Yes sir"

"Thank you, Cheryl"

When Christina reached Alex, she could see that his breathing was shallow, but at least he was breathing. When she crouched down next to him she could see the very visible break in his wrist.

"Alex wake up, wake up Alex"

Slowly he opened his eyes and tried jumping up in shock. However, when he put pressure on his wrist in a similar fashion to Christina, he collapsed.

"What's going on Yang, the plane…"

"Yes, the plane crashed, we fell from the sky and crashed landed, no need to state the obvious"

She knew there was no need to be so cold with him, but she was in a lot of pain and not interested in hashing out the details of the crash.

"What about everybody else?"

Looking around the crash site she answered him, "Robbins is over there talking to the pilot with her tibia sticking out of her leg, Meredith is over there with a superficial head lac, comforting Lexie who has a broken leg. I had a dislocated shoulder until Mer put it back in place.

You have a broken wrist, I have no idea where Shepherd or Sloan are, and Jackson is behind you unconscious, give me a hand checking on him will you"

Alex tried processing everything he was just told but everything was fuzzy. They couldn't have been in a plane crash. What were the freaking chances? How much more crap was he going to have to go through in his life.

First his dad was an abusive drunk, then his mom turned out to be crazy, although he knows she can't help it. That doesn't mean he doesn't wish he got to be a normal kid who didn't have to raise his brother and sister.

Then of course his brother turned out to be just like his mom. He hasn't heard from his sister in nearly a year. Of course, him being the jackass he is, he doesn't check on her, just that the checks he sends are being cashed.

He couldn't forget about the mess that is his love life. Ava, or Rebecca, or whatever the hell her name was, was completely insane, again not her fault but why does he get stuck with all the whack jobs.

He thought he had found the love of his life in Izzie, someone he could finally be happy with but no, she got cancer and nearly died. Apparently though after getting better staying with him wasn't enough.

She had to up and leave too, leaving him with her medical bills. Thank god she came back and took responsibility for those, otherwise he would have had to declare bankruptcy. At that point though, he had had enough.

Like he told her, he deserved someone who treated him better than she did. Of course, given that he has not only been shot since then, he was now in a plane crash, he wasn't so sure he deserved anything except pain and misery.

He felt a wave of nausea come over him. Christina must have been able to tell, given the fact she just stepped out of the way on time to avoid what must have been Alex's dinner the night before.

Christina helped sit down and rest his head between his legs, before going to check on Jackson. When she reached him, he was already starting to wake of his own accord. Just like Lexie though as soon as he did he left out a blood curdling scream.

It didn't take her long to figure out why he was screaming, she would be too if her collarbone was out of place that much.

She tried her best to soothe him, but after all she was Christina Yang, not the most soothing person on the planet.

Eventually she snapped and roared at him to shut up, which surprisingly worked.

Christina didn't know how much more of this she could deal with, she could feel the world closing in on her like it did after the shooting. She had to push through though. Now was not the time for a panic attack or a mental breakdown.

She had decided she would get through this by not feeling anything and focusing on treating her friends. Not the healthiest way to deal with everything and she knew that, but there is a difference between knowing something and caring enough to make the change.

Richard was walking down the halls toward the E.R, he had just come off the phone with the restaurant he was taking the residents too for dinner that night to celebrate passing their boards.

When he saw April coming towards him he stopped her. "Kepner, how are you? You looking forward to dinner tonight"

April looked up from her patient's chart when she heard her name and smiled at Richard. In truth, no she wasn't looking forward to it. She would much rather be at home enjoying her first night off since her boards in front of the TV, but she knew better than to say that to him.

"I'm good and yeah it should be a lot of fun"

He knew he wasn't supposed to have favourites, he was only supposed to be a teacher, a mentor and a guide for the residents, but there was something about the group he was taking out tonight. Avery, Kepner, Yang, Karev, Grey, he held them all to a higher standard and favoured them massively.

It was why he was saving their dinner until last. After all the phrase wasn't "Save the best for last", for no reason. He never could figure out why he favoured them, it was probably down to fact they were all close to Meredith and Meredith after all was his step-daughter.

He was going all out with this dinner, in fact he had just ordered a duck that needs to cook for seven hours before serving it. All the reviews for it were fantastic.

"It should shouldn't it, anyway I'm needed for a consult in the pit, I'll see you later Kepner. I hope you like duck"

With that he had gone leaving April to get back to work.

Mark knew Derek was right, there was only one way they were going to get his hand out, but that didn't mean he wanted to do it.

Derek just looked at him and begged, "Please Mark, don't make me do it myself. I will and you know I will.

I have to get out of here and look for Meredith, and if you love Lexie half as much as you say you do I know sitting here is eating you alive and that you are desperate to start looking for her too"

Derek was right, they needed to get of there, so he did what he had to do. He picked up the rock off the ground, made sure his aim was right and turned away.

He knew when he heard Derek's cry, he had made contact. He did what he needed to do to manoeuvre Derek's hand. It wasn't easy, hearing Derek in that much pain was tearing him apart inside, but he had to do it.

Luckily for him, Derek passed out from the pain before he tore a bit of his scrub top and used it along with a stick to put a tunicate above the damage. He picked up his bag and thanked God he always took a first aid kit with him.

He rummaged through the kit looking for the needle and sutured the gaping cut from the metal. It didn't take a medical degree to realise that was going to cause nerve damage.

He tried waking Derek up by calling him, when it didn't work, he smacked him across the face, wishing he had smelling salts instead.

When Derek was ready they made there way through the woods in the direction they hoped everyone else fallen in.

Both men were too occupied in thinking about the women they love to do much talking, that was until Derek saw a smoke cloud up ahead of them. He pointed toward it and called Mark.

"Look, that has to be them."

Before Mark could even answer they heard a scream coming from the same place as the smoke.

"I think that is Avery, come on Derek lets go"

With that the two men took off at a run towards what they hoped would be a crash site full of people who were alive.

Meredith had waited as long as she could, everyone else was as fine as they could be at this stage. She had helped Christina move Lexie over toward the cockpit, so they could all be together. Once everyone was settled she stood up and looked down at her sister.

"I'll be back soon I have to go find Derek"

Lexie nodded, "Hopefully Mark will be with him, I don't think I could handle it if Mark wasn't okay"

At hearing this everyone looked at her, she hadn't even thought about the fact that Meredith was the only one who knew about her feelings for Mark.

Alex stood up, a lot steadier than he was earlier. "Come on Mer, I'll give you a hand, you're not going out there by yourself"

There was a rustling in the tress and everyone turned towards it in time to see Derek and Mark appear.

Derek was the first to speak, "I couldn't agree with you more Karev"

Meredith ran to her husband and nearly knocked him with the force of her body crashing into his. Mark had to put his hand to Derek's back to help keep him standing.

Mark had heard what Lexie had said, he hoped she didn't think he had. He couldn't tell her how he felt now, he didn't want her to think he was only saying it because there was a chance they were all going to die.

She caught him staring at her and despite everything that was going on, her cheeks flushed like she was a teenage girl who just got caught staring at her first school crush.

They all sat around together in a circle and tried coming up with a game plan, the fact of the matter was, they didn't know where they were, if anybody was looking for them and it was going to be dark soon.

Christina had already gone through the site looking for water and food, she found three bottles of water, a granola bar and a bottle of soda. She also had a half pack of gum in her pocket.

They didn't have much to drink and basically no food so they had to be very careful. They also only had one match, so if they were going to light a fire, they only had one chance.

"There is no point in lighting a fire until it starts getting dark, it isn't going to last the whole night as it is"

Everyone agreed with Derek, somehow, he had become the leader of the group. He didn't ask for or want that responsibility but its not as if they could do anything anyway.

He started rummaging through cabinets behind Jerry and found a flare gun.

"YES"

He came rushing out to them with the gun held high in the air. "Now all we have to do is wait for a plane or helicopter fly over and we will be fine.

Richard met April outside the entrance to the hospital. She had been waiting for him, they were all going to dinner together. Of course, she had been the only one to arrive on time.

"Sorry I'm late Kepner, surgery ran a little long. Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know sir, so far it is just us"

Richard looked at his watch and saw that it was nearly six, given traffic if they didn't leave now they would miss the reservation.

"Right well, the others must be delayed at the airport they will just have to meet us at the restaurant"

When they arrived they took their seats, April was given a glass of champagne and she felt awkward drinking it in front of Richard, given he was sipping on a glass of water.

Being used to people feeling uncomfortable drinking around him, he knew what she was thinking. "Don't worry Kepner, who do you think ordered it, drink up"

Time passed by as they discussed patients and where April was planning on going now that she was a board-certified Trauma Surgeon.

"I'm thinking of staying actually, I love it here and Dr. Hunt is great, I will learn a lot from him"

He was delighted to hear at least someone was staying. Avery was going to Tulane, Karev was going to Hopkins, Yang was more than likely going to go to Mayo from what he heard and Grey, well Meredith was probably going to Boston.

He wished of all people she would stay, he considered offering her an Attending position. She was certainly talented enough for it, but he didn't want to seem like he was trying to hold her back.

Plus, Derek was been given a massive opportunity with Harvard, he just had to accept his daughter and granddaughter were going to be on the other side of the country.

"That's good to hear, between you and me, I know Owen was worried about losing you"

April didn't know what to say to that. She knew she was a competent surgeon, but she didn't realise the chief was hoping she wouldn't leave. Before she could say anything, a waiter arrived at the table.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, would you happen to know when the rest of the party is going to arrive sir?"

Smiling at the waiter, "That is a good question I was starting to wonder that myself, they should already be here, I was just about to step out and call them"

He looked over to April, "Excuse me a moment"

Given the time by Derek's watch they had only been stranded about fifteen hours, but it felt a lot longer. Tension's were starting to rise and Derek was sure an argument was going to occur if they didn't get out of there soon.

Everyone was just lying in front of the fire they lit about an hour before hand when out of nowhere Christina sat up like a bat out of hell.

"Do you hear that? Is that a helicopter?"

Everyone strained their ears and nobody seemed to hear anything. Alex had gotten his hopes up and when he couldn't hear anything he wasn't impressed.

"Wait a go Yang, getting our hopes up for nothing"

"I don't see you doing…"

Meredith shushed them, "I hear it to, that is a helicopter"

She stood up scrambled for the flare gun, aimed and fired it into the sky despite everyone telling her not to.

When a minute or so passed and they didn't hear anything they all began shouting at each other. Jackson giving out to Meredith, Derek telling him to shut up. Mark giving out to Derek for giving out to Jackson.

Lexie giving out to Mark, saying Jackson deserved it. It looked like Derek was right, all hell was about to break loose. That was until light filled up the crash site and they all heard a helicopter getting closer.

Meredith and Christina were right and now they were about to be rescued. They were going home.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, liked, and favourited the story. I hope you continue to enjoy the story. I planned on having this up a lot sooner, but life got in the way. Hopefully chapter four will be up over the weekend. As always feel free to review, I love to hear what you think.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of Greys Anatomy. This piece of fictional work is made purely for fun and not profit, no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters are of my own creation as well as the storyline. Any similarities to any other works on this site or any other are unintended and purely coincidental

Chapter Three

Boise Memorial's Chief of Surgery, Dr. Krieger had just found out why the team of Doctors from Seattle Grace Mercy West never showed up for the surgery they agreed to help with. It was because they were in a plane crash.

Now they were all in beds in the ICU of her hospital. She was trying to get a hold of Dr. Hunt to let him know, but every call went straight to voicemail. Their only option was contacting emergency contacts.

Although that was proving more difficult than anyone would have thought. It was clear as day they were all very close to one another. Dr. Shepherd's emergency contact was Dr. M. Grey, who was also the emergency contact of Dr. L. Grey, and Dr. Karev.

Dr. Yang's contact was Dr. Hunt which given the fact she had already tried calling him as Chief of Surgery, she didn't think she would have any more luck calling him as an emergency contact.

Dr. Shepherd was the emergency contact for Dr. M. Grey and Dr. Sloan. She thought she finally had success when Dr. Avery's contact was a Dr. April Kepner, who was also, not currently in a bed in her ICU.

All the hope of getting through to someone, was once again crushed when Dr. Kepner's phone also went to voicemail like Dr. Hunt's.

The last person in the crash was Dr. Robbins, whose emergency contact was her wife, Dr. Callie Torres, who picked up after three rings.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm looking for a Dr. Callie Torres"

"Speaking"

This was one part of the job that Dr Krieger had never experienced before. Normally it was a nurse that would handle these calls, but she decided to take care of it herself with this case.

"Dr. Torres, this is Dr. Krieger, Chief of Surgery at Boise Memorial Hospital, I'm afraid I have some bad news. Your wife was in a plane crash along with the other Doctors from Seattle Grace Mercy West, on their way here last night.

They were rescued and brought here about half an hour ago, your wife is stable but has sustained major injuries to her left leg."

Callie had to grab hold of the nurse's station she was standing next to, to stop herself from falling. This had to be a nightmare. There was no way Arizona was in a plane crash.

"Dr. Torres?"

"Y-yes I'm here"

"We weren't able to get through to anyone else to let them know about the others, Dr. Avery and Dr. Yang are the only ones whose emergency contact wasn't in the crash with them. Would you be able to let Dr. Kepner and Dr. Hunt know?"

"Yes, I will, thank you"

With that Callie hung up the phone and just stood there for a second, steadying herself before going off to find Dr. Hunt.

No sooner had she turned the corner did she run into Owen on his way back to his office, presumably after surgery given the fat he was wearing his navy scrubs and not a suit.

"Dr. Torres", Owen greeted her professionally as if they weren't friends or hadn't lived together before.

With a quiet whisper and a break in her voice she looked at him and replied, "Owen something's happened"

If the break in her voice or the fact she was whispering wasn't hint enough what ever she was about to tell him was awful, the fact she called him Owen was a dead giveaway. Nobody called him Owen at work anymore, not since he became Chief.

"Callie, what is it?"

She didn't know how to tell him, after all it wasn't just her wife that was in the crash.

"It's everyone, I just got a call from Boise's Chief, the plane everyone was in crashed on the way there"

"What, no th-that can't be, no, Christina"

"She's okay, they all lived but I don't know more than that, I'm on my way there now"

In that moment Owen didn't care about his job, he didn't care about whatever marriage problems he was having, in that moment he needed to see his wife.

"I'm coming with you"

Richard came back from trying to get through to Meredith to find out where they all were.

"I can't get through to her or Derek, its looking like they forgot. I'm so sorry Kepner, this night was supposed to be one you would look back on in years to come and remember fondly, but all it is, is a disaster"

Neither of them knew yet just how much of a disaster the night really was, but they were about to find out. April picked up her phone to ring Jackson to find out where the hell everybody was, when she saw the alert telling her she missed a call from an unknown number, and the one telling her she had a new voicemail.

She figured it was just one of the hospitals she applied for letting her know whether she got the job or not. Seeing as she had decided to stay in Seattle, she didn't need to know right away whether she got it or not.

There was something compelling her to check her messages though so she figured she could take a minute or two to do so before calling Jackson.

When she heard the message left on her phone from Dr. Krieger, she nearly threw up, and probably would of if there was anything in her stomach.

"Oh my God"

"Whats wrong Kepner?"

April struggled to tell him, not only was she upset that her friends were in a plane crash, she had to tell Richard about his daughter and son-in-law.

After collapsing back into his chair, Richard had to take a few breaths to steady himself. It wasn't missed by him that there was a bottle of Champagne on the table right in front of him. Normally a vodka tonic would have been his drink of choice but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Just as he was about to reach for it, he thought of everything he would be risking. He also thought of the fact that Meredith would kill him if he used her and Derek being in a plane crash as an excuse to fall of the wagon.

"I have to Boise, but I'm supposed to have Zola tonight after dinner, I was going to give Meredith and Derek a night alone"

Despite every bone in her body crying out to go see Jackson, April couldn't ignore her heart, it was more important for Richard to go than her.

"I'll watch her, you go"

He gave her a very weak smile before standing up, signalling the waiter to bring him the check.

The waiter arrived promptly with the bill and Richard took the cash from his wallet, as the waiter took the cash and walked away after thanking them for their custom, Richard turned to April.

"I need to ring the hospital, make sure Owen and Callie know"

No sooner had he taken his phone out of his jacket, did it ring, Owen's name showing up.

"Owen, yes I was just about to call you"

"Richard, I'm sorry to cut you off but there has been an accident, the plane with everyone going to Boise went down, now everyone…."

"Owen, I know, that's why I was just about to call, I wanted to make sure you and Callie knew".

"We do, now I managed to call in a favour with an old Army buddy, a Med Eva helicopter is on the way to the hospital to take us to Boise to bring them home, Boise is a good hospital and by all accounts everyone is fine but I'm not taking chances"

"I'll be there in ten"

Meanwhile in Boise, Dr. Krieger was preparing the transfer forms for everyone after speaking to Dr. Hunt

She did recommend they stay but as he pointed out, they weren't a trauma one centre, they weren't as well equipped as Seattle Grace Mercy West, and they were his people.

Once she had the forms sorted and ready for everyone to sign, she went to check on everyone.

All vitals were good, casts had been placed, wounds sutured and everyone was resting without sedation.

Comfortable with everyone's condition, she went back to her office to continue with her other duties, like finding a new team to preform the surgery on the conjoined twins.

After what felt like no time at all, she was being paged that the Doctors from Seattle were arriving on the roof.

She left her office and took the elevator up to the roof to meet them.

"Dr. Hunt, nice to meet, I'm just sorry about the circumstances"

Owen shook Dr. Krieger's hand and nodded politely before pointing to Richard, Callie and Bailey.

"This is Dr. Webber, Dr. Torres, and Dr. Bailey"

They all made there way to the elevator after all introductions were made.

"I have the transfer forms ready just to be signed, now I can imagine you will want to see everyone before leaving, take as much time as you need"

Owen was shown the way to Christina's room, Callie, Arizona's, Richard to Meredith's and Bailey made her way around everyone else, checking first on the only other of her interns that weren't been visited, Alex.

Alex woke up when Bailey came in, he had only been in a light sleep anyway, his mind unwilling to shut off, trying to process everything.

"Bailey, what are you doing here?"

She just stood there, giving him her usual "Nazi" stare and scoffed.

"Did you really just ask me that Karev, three of MY interns were in a plane crash and you think I'm not going to come?"

They just stared at each other for a second before Bailey broke into tears.

"Why is it my always my interns? Bombs, drowning, cancer, buses, shootings and now a plane crash. You all need to stop almost dying, I've already lost George, I am NOT losing the rest of you"

Alex didn't really know what to say so he reached out and grabbed her hand, and squeezed it tight in his.

"We are all fine, we are all alive, nothing to worry about".

Owen just sat in the chair next to Christina's bed, unable to bring himself to wake her, no matter how much he needed to hear her voice. Once he was able to accept that she was in fact okay, he left to go sort out the paperwork with Dr. Krieger.

Callie was looking at Arizona's chart and then examined her leg, trying not to wake her. Unsuccessfully though.

"Callie?"

Callie immediately stopped what she was doing and took the seat next to the head of her wife's bed.

"I'm right here", she stroked a stray hair out of Arizona's face and kissed her temple before repeating herself.

"How's Sophia?"

It didn't surprise Callie in the slightest that the first thing Arizona wanted to know was about Sophia. For someone who never wanted a child in the first place, Sophia was the centre of Arizona's world.

"She's good, she is currently having a sleepover with Zola at Aunt Aprils"

Knowing her daughter was safe and sound immediately relaxed Arizona, which was funny seeing as there was never any doubt about Sophia's safety, only hers.

"Callie, my leg…please tell me you can fix it, I can't lose my leg"

In that moment Callie didn't know whether she should be a doctor or loving wife, she knew realistically, there was no saving the leg but she couldn't bring herself to tell Arizona that.

"I'm going to do my absolute best"

Hearing those words from Callie put a smile on her face. There was no way Callie would let her lose her leg, and she had no concerns about letting Callie know just how confident she was in her abilities.

After checking on Alex, Bailey went to check on Lexie, Mark and Jackson, and Derek who were all still asleep but doing good, well good for people who had just been in a plane crash.

Once she was happy with everyone else's condition she went to check on Christina and Arizona, the latter of who was glad to see her despite the reasoning behind why they were all there.

It, baffled Bailey completely, even after everything that just happened, Arizona was still her peppy self. Granted not to the same extreme, but peppy none the less.

Richard had just finished filling Meredith in on the plans to bring them back to Seattle when Bailey arrived.

"Meredith Grey I swear to God, what is it with you and near-death experiences"

Meredith gave a weak smile in Bailey's direction before turning to Richard again.

"Dad will you go check on Derek"

"Certainly dear"

Bailey told him there was no need that he had just checked on him and he was asleep. This didn't seem to suit Meredith so she asked Richard to just double check.

"Really? I trained you Grey, you think I'm not capable of checking a chart and reading some vitals?"

Meredith shook her head, grabbed Bailey's hand and pulled her closer.

"I needed Dad to leave"

Bailey was confused before she saw the tears build in Meredith's eyes.

"I can't do it Bailey, I can't get on that chopper. I just can't. I need you to knock me out, please Bailey don't make me get on that chopper awake"

At this stage she was shaking as well as crying, which was scaring Bailey, who had never seen her like this before,

Just like Alex did with her, she clasped Meredith's hand in her own and comfortingly stroked it.

"I will, its okay, you're safe just breathe"

Once she calmed Meredith down, she met up with Owen and Richard outside by the nurses' station and filled them both in on Meredith's request.

"That's not a bad idea, we should probably do it with the rest of them as well, the last thing they need is to wake up in the middle of another flight and have a panic attack, or worse"

Owen and Bailey nodded their heads in agreement at Richard's suggestion.

"I'll go sort it out with Dr. Krieger, Richard, go fill Callie in and Bailey go up and let the pilot know we will be up in a minute once we sedate everyone"

15 minutes later after thanking Dr. Krieger for all her help, Callie, Owen, Richard and Bailey took off for Seattle with their people safe.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, liked, and favourited the story. I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Hopefully chapter five will be up over the weekend. As always feel free to review, I love to hear what you think. The first three chapters were just a starting point. This chapter is where the story really starts to develop.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of Greys Anatomy. This piece of fictional work is made purely for fun and not profit, no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters are of my own creation as well as the storyline. Any similarities to any other works on this site or any other are unintended and purely coincidental

Chapter Four

When Owen got everyone back to Seattle the first thing he did was order full body scans on every single one of them. It was his fault they were in a plane that went down, he wasn't going to miss anything when it came to their treatment.

Christina seemed to be suffering from PTSD again, but other than that she was medically fine. He is confident with a few months of therapy she will make a full recovery, or at least a recovery to a point where she can come back to work and live her life. Meredith was taken care of in Boise, the only thing she needed done in Seattle was for someone to remove the stitches in a couple days.

Alex and Jackson's scans showed up clear as well, Alex should be back to work in about three months after his wrist heals and he gets cleared by a physical therapist as well as the psychologist. Jackson was in the same situation.

Arizona and Derek would need treatment for the obvious injuries but nothing they weren't aware of. Callie was working on a solution for Arizona's leg, and he had Dr. Nelson consulting with every other Neurosurgeon he could think of to fix Derek's hand.

Mark was like Meredith, nothing but a couple of cuts and bruises, again once he was cleared mentally for work, physically he was fine. The only person that caused Owen any concern was Lexie.

Owen knocked on the door to her room before entering, he was glad to see she was awake, he didn't want to have to wake her. He was not however happy to see that Meredith was with her, he was hoping she would be with Christina.

"Good morning Dr Grey, Dr. Grey" it never got any easier having two Dr. Greys in the hospital.

Lexie sat up in her bed adjusting her leg so that it was more centred on the pillow it was elevated on. "Dr. Hunt, here to give me the all clear to go home I hope?"

"Not exactly, Meredith do you mind giving us the room"

Meredith looked between her sister and boss and looked at him as if to say "try make me leave"

Owen didn't expect any less from her but had to try. He nodded and turned to Lexie once more. He was as used to giving bad news as one could get, but to give your friend the news he was about to give her was harder than he anticipated

"Lexie as you know I ordered a full body scan on everyone when we got back. Your scan wasn't clear, we found a tumour pressing on your brain, I have consulted with Dr. Nelson and his assessment is that it is too close to your cerebral cortex to operate.

Now the good news is we caught it early, very early in fact so we are hopeful that radiation will work. I'm sorry Lexie"

Lexie sat there staring at him for a couple seconds before bursting out into laughter.

This surprised Owen and Meredith who was trying to supress the burning sensation she was getting in the back of her eyes.

"Lex?"

At the sound of her name she looked at her sister,

"I have an inoperable tumour Mer, I have one year left in my residency before I become a neurosurgeon, my job is to remove tumours from brains and now I have one that is inoperable, I mean what are the chances"

Meredith just stared at her sister who seemed to be having a mental breakdown, nobody laughs at the news of having a brain tumour.

Lexie grabbed Meredith's hand and squeezed it for dear life, pulling her closer before bursting into tears.

"No really Meredith, what are the odds because I don't know. I mean they've got to be low enough right, it's not often you hear of a situation like this is it?"

Meredith just held Lexie and let the news sink in for both of them, while Owen stepped out after telling them he would come back later to check on her.

The two sisters remained in that position for a while before Lexie fell asleep and it was time for Richard to arrive with Zola, she wanted to see her precious angel before she went to day-care, after the news she just got she could do with a hug.

Derek Shepherd had wanted to be a Doctor for as long as he could remember, since his Dad got shot in front of him and his baby sister, and there was nothing he could do to help him. He spent years studying, got good grades, went to Bowdoin as an undergraduate before Columbia to study medicine.

After all that he got his medical degree and started his surgical internship like any other surgeon. He excelled in his residency and became a Board-Certified Neurosurgeon which was by no means an easy feat.

He became a world class surgeon, one of the best in his field in the world. Published studies, had a method named after him. People came from far and wide to Seattle just to get a consult with him.

After the disastrous end to his first marriage, he met the love of his life, he had a beautiful daughter and a dream home. He had everything he had ever wanted. Now after a plane crash he had to face never being able to operate again.

The only small mercy was that Meredith came out with only a couple bruises and a minor head lac that was stitched in Boise and shouldn't even leave a scar. She was alright, and even though he may never operate again at least he was alive.

Lying in the hospital bed brought back memories of the last time he was in one, it wasn't all that long ago. Granted that time, it could have been a lot worse, getting shot in the chest by Gary Clark had nearly killed him.

One thing he learned from that experience was that he couldn't not tell his sisters and mother himself. No matter how hard it would be, he had to be the one to make that call. Just as he was reaching for his phone Meredith came in to check on him.

"Hey, how's Zozo?"

Meredith gave her husband a soft smile, she knew him better than she knew herself. He may be putting on a brave face and acting as if nothing was wrong, but she knew.

She knew the probability that he would never operate again was eating him up inside. His family was the only thing more important to him than his ability to perform surgery.

"She's good, didn't want to go to day care though, wanted to come visit Daddy instead, but I told her you would be here later on, I had to bribe her with extra cuddles but she eventually settled"

"That's good, have you seen anyone else today?"

"Yeah, Christina is okay, PTSD is back but Owen is confident she will be fine with a bit of therapy, Alex and Jackson are itching to get out of here and are delighted Owen discharged them. Mark was also discharged and was with Callie and Sofia visiting Arizona".

"How's Arizona's leg?"

Meredith was pouring herself a cup of water from the jug next to Derek's bed when she looked at him and shook her head.

"It's not looking good, I overheard Callie talking to Mark, she isn't sure she will be able to save her leg"

It upset Derek to hear this, he was hoping he would be the only one with serious injuries from the crash. If there had to be someone, in his mind it was better to have it happen to him rather than anyone else.

"What about Lexie?"

Something was off with Meredith ever since she walked in, he couldn't place it but the way her face twitched when he asked about her sister made it obvious.

"Mer?"

Meredith took a deep breath before looking at her husband, she really didn't want to tell him, she knew how he would react. Little Grey was his baby sister just as much as she was hers and the fact he won't be able to do anything will not help.

"Her scan didn't come back clear, Owen and Nelson found a tumour close to her cerebral cortex, too close to operate. They are confident they have caught it early enough for radiation to work, but I'm not so sure, how often does that work"

Derek stood up out of his bed and pulled Meredith into a strong embrace, he knew while she is too strong to admit it, she is barely holding it together and needs to be able to let go for a few minutes, and she does.

In the security and safety of her husband's arms she breaks, and lets everything that has happened to them in the last forty-eight hours sink in.

Mark had just dropped Sofia off at day care and figured there was no time like the present to tell Lexie how he feels about her. He couldn't do it in the woods, he didn't want her to think he was just saying it because they were probably going to die.

Now he could say it because it is the truth, it has always been and always will be the truth. Mark Sloan loves Lexie Grey and nothing was going to stand in his way of being with her anymore.

He got to her room and knocked gently on the door, when there was no answer he knocked again, still no answer so he stuck his head in the door and saw she was asleep.

He wasn't going to wake her but he wasn't leaving her side until she knew how he felt about her, so he sat down in the seat next to her bed, and just stayed there thinking about all the things he wanted to say.

He was sorry for the way he left her standing outside the hospital the other night after she confessed her feelings for him. He was sorry for responding with "Thank you for your candour".

He wanted to tell her he knows he messed up, he knows it couldn't have been easy for her to deal with him getting a daughter and a grandchild over night or how he got Callie pregnant, that he would do anything for her, that he would go as slow as she wanted.

There was no pressure on her to get married or have kids, or any of it, he just wants to be with her and he will do whatever he has to, to make that happen.

He didn't know how long he had been there when she finally woke up but he didn't care. It was now or never.

When she looked at him she thought she was dreaming, it was only when she noticed the pain in her leg that she wasn't.

He gave her his signature Mark Sloan grin that made her heart race before brushing a stray hair out of her face.

"Hey Lex"

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

She didn't mean to come across as bitchy as she did, but she was tired, she was sore, she had just found out she had a brain tumour, the last thing she needed was for the one person she loved more than anyone to come into her room and give her more bad news, she didn't think she could take it.

"I wanted to talk about the other night, you know about what you said to me"

He was never this nervous around any girl or woman in his life, there was something about her that broke him and fixed him at the same time. He was petrified to say anything. Her reaction could very well shatter his heart.

Just as he was about to speak she cut him off,

"Look I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything, you're with Julia and I respect that…"

"I love you too"

That is not what she expected to here, go back even half an hour before Owen showed up and her power nap she would have done anything to hear those words come out of his beautiful mouth, but now after what Hunt told her, she couldn't deal with it.

"No, you don't you love Julia, this is some sort of aftershock or something from the crash"

Mark took one of her soft, yet strong hands in both of his and shook his head in disagreement.

"No, it's not and no I don't, look I know I hurt you by walking away with Julia but I broke up with her when we got back to my apartment. She isn't you Lexie. I know I should have told you that sooner. I was going to but then the crash and…

Look the point is I love you, not Julia. I know everything I've ever done has hurt you whether it was having Sloan stay, trying to get her to give me Baby Sloan, having Sofia with Callie and Arizona, everything I've ever done has been about what I want.

I wanted a family, I wanted a wife, I wanted what I never thought I would ever want. The only thing I didn't realise soon enough is that it was you that made me want those things. I don't care if you're not ready for your own children or marriage now all I care about is being with you.

Please give me another chance Lex I swear to you I will go as slow as you want, I will spend the rest of my life proving just how much I love you, I will do anything all I want is for you to say yes"

Hearing Mark pour his heart out to her like this, seeing the tears that were welling up in his eyes, hearing the sincerity in his voice was nearly too much for her. She found it difficult to breath.

All she wanted was for him to pick her, choose her, love her. Now when he was going to give him everything she wanted it was too late, she didn't care what Owen said about catching it early, her tumour was probably going to kill her.

"I can't do this, I have to get out of here"

She tried standing up, but she couldn't even get her leg off the pillow before he stopped her. She tried shaking him off but realised she was going nowhere even if he wasn't here she couldn't walk and the crutches were too far away to reach, so she sat there with her back to him.

"Lex talk to me"

Silence.

"Lex?"

"I have an inoperable brain tumour"

Mark was sure he didn't hear her right, there was no way she said inoperable brain tumour.

"I'm sorry what did you say?"

She turned to face him, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I can't be with you because I have an inoperable brain tumour and chances are I will be dead within a year anyway, Owen and Nelson think that because we caught it early radiation will work, but realistically it won't. I will not make you watch me die Mark, I love you too much".

While his heart was just shattered into a million pieces he knew she couldn't tell by the look on his face because God damn it she would not see him cry for her, he was not giving up on her.

He wiped away the tears from her cheek and slowly leaned forward to kiss her, it was the type of kiss you see in the movies. The earth stood still, everyone and everything ceased to exist in that moment.

There were no tumours, no plane crashes, no hospitals, just two people who loved each other beyond reason locked in an earthshattering kiss.

"Alexandra Caroline Grey, I never want to hear you say that again okay? You are not dying, you will not die on me because we are going to grow old together, we are going to get married someday, have kids, have grandkids and an overall amazing life together.

You are going to kick this tumour's ass, finish your residency become a neurosurgeon with such talent and skill you will give even Derek Shepherd a run for his money, and I for one cannot wait to watch you do it"

When she said nothing and just sat there staring at him, he looked at her more seriously than he had ever looked at anyone.

"Do you hear me?"

She was still trying to catch her breath from that kiss, but she heard every word he had just said and loved the sound of it. She may not have been able to speak but she could nod, and nod she did.

She was finally with the man she would spend the rest of her life with, whether the rest of her life was sixty years or one, for better or worse this was it.

"Now Hunt is not a neurosurgeon and, in my opinion, Nelson is a quack so I am going to go speak to Derek and get his opinion on the matter, I will be back shortly. He bent down to give her a quick peck before leaving to find Derek.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, liked, and favourited the story. Left the last chapter on a bit of a sad note. I was aiming to have this chapter up by the weekend, but my mind has been working overtime on ideas for how I'm going to write the next couple chapters, so here it is early. As always feel free to review, I love to hear what you think. I apologise for any medical inaccuracies, I am not a doctor.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of Greys Anatomy. This piece of fictional work is made purely for fun and not profit, no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters are of my own creation as well as the storyline. Any similarities to any other works on this site or any other are unintended and purely coincidental

Chapter Five

Derek knew he needed to call his family, at the same time though he really wanted to look at Lexie's scans. Nelson was an okay surgeon but he never thought outside the box. If it was up to Derek Nelson would not be running his service right now but he was the most senior attending.

"I want to see her scans"

Meredith wasn't sure whether showing him the scans was a good idea, either he would agree nothing could be done, or he would know how to remove it but not be able to with his hand. She didn't know which would be worse.

"Derek, I don't know is that such a good idea?"

He was taken back by her question how could she not think it would be a good idea. If there was anyone on the west side who would have any idea what to do it was him.

"Mer, why wouldn't you want me to look at her scans?"

She looked away from him not wanting to see the hurt in his eyes that was inevitably going to be there.

"Because either way its not going to be good, you'll know how to remove the tumour and not be able to because of your hand, or you won't know at all and I don't know which scenario would be worse"

He reached out and cupped her cheek with his good hand.

"If I know how to remove it Mer, it means its possible and a game plan can be made, we both know radiation might work, but what if it doesn't?"

She knew he was right, even a small chance of a surgery was favourable to months of a radiation treatment that might not even work.

"You're right, I'll go ask Owen for her scans"

"Owen? Shouldn't Nelson have them?"

Meredith shook her head.

"No, Owen is overseeing the care of all of us regardless of treatment and department"

Meredith left to go get the scans, leaving Derek with nothing better to do than bite the bullet and call his family. He sat down and picked up his phone. Amelia was the first person in his contacts, he just couldn't bring himself to call her first.

Kathleen was next so hit the call button, and waited for her to pick up.

"Well this is a surprise, you ringing to tell me you are finally brining my niece out to see us?"

Derek could hear a lot of noise in the background and figured his sister was at work. That or with the kids, he could swear one of the voices was a child's.

"Hey Kath, you sound busy I can call back later if that suits?"

Putting her hand up to her ear so she could hear him, Kathleen left the room with her kids and their cousins.

"No, its fine, Sunday dinner with Mom, its just the kids. What's up?"

"Since when do you do Sunday dinner?"

"Well little brother, if you came home more often you would know last year myself, Lizzie and Nancy bring the kids over to Mom's every Sunday"

Okay he knew he deserved that, while he needed to get away from New York after the whole Addison and Mark affair, he had forgiven both of them, found Meredith and now had a family of his own, it wouldn't kill him to go home more often. Especially seeing as none of them had met Zola yet.

Plus, this whole near-death experience just made him think about the fact that he did miss his nieces and nephews as well as his sisters and mother. He decided in that moment they were flying out for Christmas.

"Alright, I deserved that, how about we come out for Christmas, its about time you all met Zola"

That is not the response she expected, she knew herself that her comment was manipulative, and as the family shrink she knew that if she missed her brother she should talk to him about it, or even fly out and visit him.

"That's great Derek, everyone will be so excited to see you. So, how's things there in Seattle?"

"That's actually why I'm calling, you said you were with Mom, Nancy and Lizzie? Could you get them, saves me having the same conversation with them after you?"

"Yeah sure, give me a second"

The tone in Derek's voice was starting to put her on edge, he never called so she got a nagging feeling something wasn't right. She quickly gathered the others and went back into the living room where she left the phone.

Derek was met with a chorus of hellos from his family, who all sounded like they were having a fun time together and he felt guilty about the fact that he was about to ruin that.

"Hey guys"

"So, Derek when are you bringing my newest Granddaughter out to us? I'm debating coming out to Seattle myself soon"

"I was just talking to Kath about that, nothing is set in stone I only had the idea while on the phone but if both Meredith and I can get the time off I was thinking Christmas"

Lizzie was the next to speak.

"Oh, Derek that's great we all miss you and even more important we want to see Meredith and Zola."

"Not that I'm not happy to hear from you Derek but I left Paul finishing off dinner and you know he should never be left alone in the kitchen, what's up?"

Derek couldn't help but smile a little at memories of his brother-in-law trying to cook, that's what Nancy gets for always insisting she did the cooking.

"Are you all sitting down?"

That one question made everyone in New York go white as a ghost and take a seat. That question coupled with his tone meant one thing and one thing only, something awful had happened"

"Son, whats happened?"

"Well uhm, there is no easy way to say this so I'm just going to come out and say it. First of all, we are all okay, we all made it home but myself, Mer and Mark along with a few other Doctor's were on our way to assist with a conjoined twin separation in Boise. The plane we were one crashed into the woods."

All Derek was able to Make out was the shocked gasps at first and then all of them asking if he was okay and shouting about planes being unsafe, or how he needs to leave Seattle that's the second time he has nearly died there, or how they had heard about the crash on the news but that it didn't say where the doctors were from or give out any names.

"Like I said we all made it back, but not unscratched. Arizona may lose her leg, Alex, Jackson and Lexie have various broken bones. Christina, Mark and Mer are all okay, have already been discharged in fact. Knowing Mark, he is already trying to get back into an OR."

He knew calling out everyone's name made no sense, Lexie, Mark him and Meredith were the only ones his family knew about.

"What about you dear?"

Not wanting to answer his mother's question he pretended not to hear it.

"As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Meredith is trying to get back to work as well"

"Derek Christopher Shepherd, do not ignore me. What about you"

His mother was always so proud of the fact that he became a surgeon, it was all he ever wanted to be and she pushed him hard to help him achieve that goal. How was he supposed to tell her he would be lucky to be able to pick up a scalpel again, never mind cut into someone's brain.

"Well Mom, I, uhm, my hand got stuck in a piece of metal, myself and Mark had to get it out somehow, and the only way to do it was to smash it with a rock and pull it out. There is a lot of nerve damage, I'll be lucky to be able to write my name with it again. My career is over."

His sisters just sat there in silence trying not to cry, the raw pain in his voice was making it hard for them though, he was their baby brother, they always looked out for him, tried to keep him from ever being in pain. Between their Dad dying and his best friend sleeping with his wife they weren't always able to do that though.

This however, this was different, the pain in his voice was not a pain they all shared over losing a parent, it wasn't pain mixed with anger and betrayal. This pain was so very clearly the pain of a man who had just lost his identity, lost who he spent his whole life working for, and it was tearing them all up there wasn't anything they could do.

How their mother was able to keep it together was beyond them.

"Oh Derek, I'm so sorry, it's going to be okay though, you will get through this"

"I don't know Mom, Lexie just diagnosed with an inoperable tumour on her Brain, Meredith has gone to get the scans so I can have a look. I don't know what I'm more scared of, that it really is inoperable or that if my hand wasn't messed up I would be able to take it out.

I mean if I could take it out, how am I Supposed to look at her, or Meredith or Mark, how am I supposed to look them in the eye and say there is something that could be done, but like with most cases I'm the only surgeon crazy enough to go near it but I can't with my hand"

Carolyn Shepherd didn't really cry, especially not in front of her children, she was always too strong for that, didn't want them to see her less than the strong woman who raised them.

She knew it made no sense that crying in times of pain or sorrow was not weakness, but she was set in her ways.

That being said after hearing everything she just had, realising she nearly lost both of her sons because damn it that's what Mark Sloan was, a son, as well as the women they loved was nearly too much for her.

Now to hear Lexie had a tumour, she gave up trying not cry and just let the tears flow openly.

"I don't have the answer for that son, I wish I did but I don't. You'll just have to do what you've always done in times where you've struggled. You'll just have to find the strength".

Derek couldn't be on the phone anymore, he knew Meredith would be back any minute and didn't want her to see him so upset.

"Look guys, I have to go, I'm getting tired and my hand is starting to hurt so I'm going to up my pain medication. Don't tell Amy I need to tell her myself, I'm going to ring her later. I love you"

He felt bad for lying but he knew it was the only way to get them off the phone. Once he put his phone down, he just sat there taking deep breaths. Telling his family had been a lot harder than he expected.

Meredith figured the best place to find Owen was his office, he had made some comment earlier about the paperwork building up on him. When she knocked he looked up from his desk and saw it was her through the window in the door and beckoned her in.

"Meredith what can I do for you?"

"Derek sent me, he wants to see Lexie's scans, see if they really are inoperable or if its just Nelson not thinking outside the box as usual"

Owen nodded his head in understanding, he figured Derek would want to see them, he just didn't want to suggest it on the off chance he was wrong. He started searching through the mountain of paperwork on his desk.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, itching to get back to work actually"

Owen laughed, "I swear no matter how much crap you go through Meredith you always want to get back into the OR, its what makes you such an excellent surgeon"

He found the files he was looking for, instead of having handing them over to her though, he pointed to one of the seats in front of his desk.

"Take a seat for a minute Meredith, there is something I want to talk to you about"

She did as she was asked and slowly sat down, she was still a bit stiff from the crash.

"I was going to wait a while before mentioning this to you, especially with Lexie and Derek's condition but seeing as you've brought it up, there is no time like the present.

I got your e-mail about turning down Mass Gen and accepting the fellowship offered to you here in Seattle before you left for Boise. I spoke to Bailey and Webber about it and with Dr. Matthews retiring at the end of the month we are short a General attending.

The three of us agreed you have the skill, talent, instinct and nerve of an attending and a fellowship year would be wasted on you, with that in mind I want to offer you the vacant attending position"

Meredith just sat there is stunned silence, her mother may have won a Harper Avery award while still a resident but she still had to do her fellowship.

"Now with everything going on I want you to take as much time as you want to think it over, speak to Derek, do whatever it is you need to do. The position is on hold for you for as long as you need.

If and when you decide to take it medically you are cleared for work, so once you are cleared by psych you can start whenever you want"

She knew Derek would be annoyed with her, after all she never told him she turned down Mass Gen, but she couldn't turn down the opportunity that was in front of her it was a once in a life time kind of opportunity.

"I'll take it, I'll sort out the consult with psych and get back to you with a letter clearing me for work"

Owen wasn't surprised to hear this, he half expected her to take it on the spot anyway. He stood up and extended his hand for Meredith to shake.

"In that case Dr. Grey congratulations, you are Seattle Grace Mercy West's newest General Surgery Attending"

"Thank you, Chief Hunt"

He handed her Lexie's file and she left to bring it back to Derek. She was preoccupied with how she was going to tell Derek she had basically decided for the two of them that they were staying in Seattle she never heard Alex and Jackson calling her.

Reaching out and grabbing her shoulder Alex called her once more. The shock of someone grabbing her caused her to drop the file on the floor causing the scans to fall out. When she saw it was only Alex she relaxed.

"Jesus Alex don't sneak up on me like that"

Alex bent down to pick up the file for her, "What are you doing with a patient file, surely you haven't been cleared for…"

He stopped talking when he saw the name on the scan, and what he thought was a tumour. He held it up to the light and saw his suspicions were right.

"Mer, please tell me this isn't true, please tell me the scan is wrong"

Jackson took it off him and held up to the light as well to see what was going on, when he saw what was on it, and who's it was he stood there staring at Meredith waiting for a response.

Meredith didn't know what to say, her head was spinning. She had spent the last two days on an emotional rollercoaster. Upset over the crash, relieved everyone made it home, thrilled to see Zola, devastated about Derek's hand, distraught over Lexie, over the moon with her attending position.

She was all over the place emotionally and seeing Alex and Jackson standing there in front of her hoping to God she tells them that the scan they just saw was wrong, that Lexie doesn't really have a tumour, she broke.

She couldn't be strong anymore. She didn't care that she was in the middle of the hospital, she didn't care that the rumour mill ran so fast that everyone in the hospital would know about her breakdown before she was back in Derek's room, she just didn't care anymore.

She threw herself into Alex's arms and wept uncontrollably.

Alex just stood there and stroked her back, both him and Jackson truing their best not to cry as well, wondering if this nightmare would ever be over.

When Derek saw Mark come into his room he instantly felt under pressure, he didn't know if he knew about Lexie yet. He was dreading having to tell him and hoped he already knew.

"Mom will probably call you soon, as well as Nancy, Kath and Lizzie, I just got off the phone from them about two minutes ago.

"Already rang me, just got off with them about ten seconds before walking in. Amy know yet?"

Derek shook his head, "No, not yet I was just going to ring her"

"Before you do, have you seen Meredith today?"

Neither man knew that the other was aware of Lexie's diagnosis and didn't want to be the one to tell the other.

"Yeah why?"

Mark scratched the back of his head before releasing a sigh.

"Did she talk to you about Lexie?"

Just like that Derek knew not only did Mark know, but why he was here.

"She did, and before you ask I don't know. Mer is gone to get her scans"

"We are back together, I told her how I feel, she was worried about me having to watch her die, but I reassured her that wouldn't happen. I'm not so sure though. I'm scared Derek"

"Honestly Mark, so am I. Even if I deem the tumour removable, I have to find a surgeon not only competent enough to do, but brave enough, and I don't know how many surgeons like that there are"

Before either of them could say anymore Meredith arrived followed by Jackson and Alex.

"What are you doing here Avery, Karev?"

"Same as you I imagine Sloan, to find out Derek's opinion on Lexie's tumour"

If Mark was curious as to how they found out he didn't say anything, he just turned to Derek to see what he had to say.

The room was deadly silent for thirty seconds while he looked at the scans.

"DAMN IT"

Everyone jumped at his outburst. Nobody was brave enough to ask what he was angry about, nobody wanted to know.

"Damn that fucking plane, it is a difficult surgery, very difficult, very few Surgeons can preform it but it is possible to remove the tumour. I just need to find someone competent enough.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, liked, and favourited the story. As always feel free to review, I love to hear what you think. I apologise for any medical inaccuracies, I am not a doctor.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of Greys Anatomy. This piece of fictional work is made purely for fun and not profit, no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters are of my own creation as well as the storyline. Any similarities to any other works on this site or any other are unintended and purely coincidental

Chapter Six

Arizona was getting more and more frustrated, she knew some things took time but it had been nearly two hours since she started taking the antibiotics Callie had prescribed her, but the only change was her leg was deteriorating.

She had made Callie promise she wouldn't cut off her leg, after all how was she supposed to be who she is without her leg, she certainly wouldn't be able to slide around the hospital in her wheelies.

She knew her wife would arrive with their daughter any minute, but she didn't know if she was up to seeing them, her leg was on fire, all she really wanted was to up her morphine and take a nap.

Of course, that only made her feel guilty because she nearly died which would have left Callie a widow and Sofia down a parent, she loved the two of them more than anyone or anything in the world but still a nap would be amazing right now.

Maybe if she pretended to be asleep Callie would take Sofia back down to daycare, then later after she was rested Sofia could come up before going home.

Whichever way she looked at it, she felt like the worst mother in the world, she either let Sofia visit and feel guilty for thinking about pretending to be asleep, or she pretended to sleep and felt guilty about that.

In the end the decision was made for her when in walked Callie holding Sofia in her arms.

"Say hi mommy"

As soon as Sofia saw her, she started pulling away from Callie arms outstretched looking for Arizona to hold her.

Instantly all thoughts of naps and being alone vanished as she took Sofia and started tickling her mercilessly, which only caused Sofia to screech and giggle.

Callie was relieved to have her wife back safe and sound and loved watching her play with their daughter, but she knew from the look on Arizona's face she was in pain, and a lot of it. She looked at the chart on the end of the bed before starting to undo the bandages to have a look see were the antibiotics doing anything.

Arizona made sure to keep Sofia's attention on her so she wouldn't look at what Callie was doing, she didn't think it was a good idea for her daughter to see just how gruesome her leg was.

Through the corner of her eye Arizona was able to see the look of concern and disappointment on Callie's face, which only stood to confirm her suspicions that her leg was only getting worse.

"How bad is it Callie?"

"It's not that bad"

Arizona just sat there and looked her wife in the eyes.

"Do not lie to me Calliope, how bad is it?"

Callie really didn't want to admit that she was more than likely going to have to cut her wife's leg off.

"I don't know if I can save it"

"Well you need to figure something out, you promised me you would save my leg"

Callie counted to five in her head before responding, not wanting to snap at her for expecting too much of her.

"I am doing my best Arizona, I am not God I can't do everything I set my mind to, I'm not a miracle worker"

Arizona was getting more and more frustrated and angry.

"That is exactly what you are Calliope, you perform miracles for other patients every God damn day, what should I be any different?"

"Well you shouldn't even be my patient you are my wife I shouldn't be your Doctor, I am doing everything I can Arizona you know as well as I do sometimes there is just nothing we can do"

Callie regretted raising her voice as soon as she had done it, not only had she shouted at her sick wife, she had scared their child.

Arizona started rubbing her hand in small circles on Sofia's back trying to sooth her.

"Well done Callie"

Callie knew if she didn't leave the room now she would say something she would regret,

she walked over to Sofia and picked her up.

"I have a surgery in a few minutes, I need to get her back to daycare, I'll see you later"

With that Callie had left, leaving Arizona to reflect on her own part of that argument, she knew Callie was trying her best, she knew that Callie would keep her promise if she could. The problem was she also knew she couldn't face losing her leg.

At this stage her leg was getting more painful, she decided that nap wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. She hit the button that added more morphine into her system, closed her eyes and waited for the sweet relief of sleep to take over her body.

Mark could have kissed Derek, it wouldn't be Derek performing the surgery which would have been the ideal scenario but at least someone would be.

The tumour wasn't inoperable, the tumour wasn't inoperable. He started smiling like a child on Christmas morning.

"I've got to go tell her, Derek, I owe you"

"She may be the love of your life Mark but she is my sister, you don't owe me anything, I also haven't done anything, I still need to find someone to do it"

Mark scoffed, "You're Derek Shepherd, you will find someone, you always find a way it's who you are"

With that he was gone, half running down the hall to get back to Lexie's room.

"Hey Mer, we were going to go visit Christina, you coming?"

Meredith turned to Jackson and shook her head, knowing the longer she put off telling her husband about what she did, the bigger the fight would be.

"No., go on ahead I'll catch up later, I need to talk to Derek about something"

"Alright, see you soon, come on Avery"

Alex and Jackson left leaving Meredith to face the music.

"So, I uh did a thing"

Derek was confused, Meredith hadn't really left the hospital since they got here, what could she have done that caused her to look as nervous as she did.

"What?"

"Well, uh, before we went to Boise, I e-mailed Mass Gen and turned down the fellowship they offered me, and accepted the one Dad gave me. I know you already handed in your notice and accepted Harvard but our family is here and our life is here Derek, I can't just up and leave.

I know I should have spoken to you about it first, I was going to tell you on the plane but I was comforting Lexie over Mark and then when I was going to come talk to you, you got up and walked over to Mark and then, well you know what happened then"

This was a surprise, he thought Meredith had been looking forward to going to Boston, he knew he had been looking forward to it. It was hard to believe everything Harvard was offering him.

"Alright"

Now it was her turn to be confused, she was expecting a massive fight, she knew he wanted to go to Harvard, she knew that what she had done was selfish, she just couldn't help it.

"Alright? You're not mad?"

Derek half laughed holding up his hand to her.

"It isn't like Harvard were still going to want me anyway Mer, at least here Hunt will probably let me stay and do consults, maybe even still run the department. If you want to do your fellowship here in Seattle then that's fine"

Relieved wasn't the word for what Meredith was feeling, she was sure there was going to be a fight. She leaned forward to give Derek a kiss.

"I won't be doing my fellowship her after all actually"

"What do you mean? You just said our life is here and we can't just up and move"

"I know what I said, but Hunt had an idea and consulted with Dad and Bailey and all three of them agreed. Dr. Matthews is retiring at the end of the month, opening up an Attending spot, Hunt offered it to me, I'm officially an Attending"

"What? Really? Meredith that's fantastic I am so proud of you, congrats"

Now it was his turn to kiss her, and they stayed like that until Richard walked in.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to walk in on you too"

It didn't matter how long they had been together, the fact they were married or the fact they had a child together, every time her father walked in on them she got embarrassed.

"Sorry Dad"

"I just stopped by to offer you my congratulations, Hunt told me you accepted the Attending position, I am so proud of you Meredith, and I know your mother would be too"

Meredith knew he was right, her mother would have been proud, she never had the best relationship with her mother, probably why she was so close to Richard. She called him Dad even though he was only her step-father, but he was the one who was there for her childhood.

Thatcher was too busy raising his other family, and her mother was too busy preforming surgery to really be present. They had grown closer when Meredith went to Med School and Ellis had to step back after her Alzheimer's diagnosis, but that had been short lived seeing as not too long after Ellis forgot who she was.

It was nice to think that her mother would have been proud of what she had accomplished, it was very unheard of for a resident to move to Attending straight after their Boards and bypassing a fellowship year regardless of specialty.

"Thanks Dad"

"I visited Lexie on my way here, she told me about what Hunt said, how are you holding up?"

"Better, Derek just looked at her scans, he says he would be able to remove it as well as a few other surgeons, so now we just have to get one of those surgeons to agree to do it and things should be okay"

Richard patted his son-in-law on the shoulder, he knew it must be killing him that he couldn't perform the surgery himself. His ability to perform surgeries like the one Lexie needed was the exact reason Richard had hired him five years ago.

Mark was passing by Arizona's room just as the monitors started beeping, she was crashing.

"I need a crash cart over here"

He rushed into the room and started compressions on her chest.

"Damn it, Robbin's what are playing at"

He took the paddles of the nurse who brought in the crash cart as another took over compressions.

"Push one of epi and charge to three hundred"

He placed the paddles on her chest and prepared to shock her.

"Clear"

He shocked her to no avail, she was still flatlining.

"Charge to three sixty…clear"

This time he got her back but barely.

"Someone page Torres NOW"

Barely a minute had passed by before Callie arrived, in that time Mark had undone the bandages on her leg to take a look and see that it was turning purple, she also was starting to spike a fever.

"It's her leg Callie Necrotising Fasciitis, I know what you promised her but it needs to come off, and it needs to come off now"

She knew this was coming but that didn't make it any easier, none the less Callie nodded to him and turned to the nearest nurse.

"Get me an OR now, I'm on my way up"

Callie and Mark rushed her up to OR 1 and while the nurses got her prepped Callie scrubbed.

"Mark I can't lose her I just can't"

Mark put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.

"Neither can I and neither can Sofia, but that doesn't matter because you are Dr. Callie Torres and you are an Ortho Goddess so you will go in there, do what needs to be done, come out and she will be fine"

"Thanks Mark, I needed to hear that"

Callie left him in the scrub room and went into the OR to do the one thing she promised she wouldn't.

Mark was torn between going to tell Lexie they may have found away to remove the tumour or to go up to the gallery and see if the mother of his child made it through this surgery. In the end he knew that he would find out one way or the other and he didn't really want to watch in case it didn't end well.

When he walked in to her room she was sitting up reading some case notes on the last surgery she preformed with Derek, where he got it was beyond him but he didn't care. He found it cute when she would focus so much on her job that she didn't even notice anything going on around her.

"Hey Lex, good news"

She may often get wrapped up in her work but hearing him call her Lex again was one sure fire way to get her attention, she had missed him calling her that. She immediately stopped what she was doing and looked up to see the concern on his face, which confused her seeing as he said he had good news.

"Derek says the tumour is removable, he is finding someone to do it"

Lexie was so relieved to hear that, if there was anyone in the world she trusted when it came to Neurosurgery it was her brother-in-law. Who cared if he wouldn't be able to perform it himself, he wouldn't just let anyone operate on her so who ever he gets will be more than competent. Still though Mark didn't look happy.

"That's great, but yet you look like someone just punched you in the gut, whats wrong?"

"Arizona is in surgery, she crashed as I was walking by her room on my way here, Necrotising Fasciitis, Callie is currently cutting her leg off, the one thing she didn't want so IF she comes out of surgery things are going to be rough"

Lexie took his hand and gave it a light squeeze so that he would look at her and not the ground. For someone who was more confident than they sometimes should be, whenever someone Mark loved was sick or in danger he became a shadow of the man everyone knew him to be, crawling into himself as if expecting the worst to happen.

"There is no IF but WHEN she comes out of surgery, and yeah things will be difficult but she has all of us to get her through it and I know full well she will be back to her chipper self in no time. Trust me"

Mark cracked a smile and thought about how lucky he was to have Lexie back in his life. In that moment thinking about how Callie may lose Arizona he made a vow to himself to never let anything get in his way of his happiness with Lexie again.

Life was just too damn short, people get shot, hit by busses, cancer, in plane crashes, anything could happen and he wasn't going to spend anymore of his life not with Lexie.

"What did I ever do to deserve you, you are too good for me little Grey"

"I know, but I love you anyway"

Meanwhile Derek was having no luck, he had made several phone calls to several neurosurgeons across the world, not just the US and nobody would take on the Surgery. He can't say he blamed them, it was a very risky surgery with very low odds of success.

Just when he was about to give up hope he had an idea, he opened up his contacts once more and scrolled down until he found the number he was looking for and hit dial. He sat there not sure what he was going to say but he didn't have much time to think about it because it only took three rings before the phone was picked up.

"Hello Dr. Montgomery's office how can I help you?"

Derek really hoped he wasn't making a mistake, but this was his only option.

"Hi, I need to speak with Dr. Montgomery please"

"I'm sorry sir, she isn't taking any calls at the moment she is in a meeting"

Derek knew what that meant, after eleven years of marriage he knew full well Addison only told her secretaries to say that when the opposite was true and she just wanted five minutes to herself.

"Look its important tell her its Derek Shepherd"

"Please hold"

He didn't have to wait long, he knew she would take his call, he never rang unless it was important. After the divorce, they had managed to become sort of friends. The kind of friends who sent Christmas cards, birthday wishes. They also used each other for medical consults when a case warranted it.

"Derek?"

"Addison, Hi. I hope I'm not interrupting anything"

He knew he wasn't, and she knew he knew, but it was the polite thing to say.

"No, no of course not what can I do for you?"

"Is Amy sober?"

This question stumped Her, not once had he never rung her to ask her about Amy, after all he was more than capable of calling his own sister if he wanted to.

"What?"

"I know it's a weird question"

"It is especially seeing as you could just ask her yourself"

Derek decided to just be completely honest with her about why he wanted to know.

"You know that plane crash that's been all over the news carrying Doctors?"

Now Addison was really confused, what had a plane crash and Amy being sober got to do with one another…unless.

"Of course, myself and Amy were just talking about it. Derek please don't tell me that plane was from Seattle"

"Wish I could. Myself, Mark, Meredith, Lexie, Arizona, Yang, Karev and Avery were on board, we all made it home, but I will probably never operate again"

"Oh my God, Derek I'm so sorry"

"I've told everyone except Amy and I don't want to tell her if it is just going cause her to go and get a fix, I also want her to come to Seattle and run my service until I know whether I will definitely never operate again and whether I'm going to stay as Chief of Neuro anyway if I can't"

To say that Addison was shocked would be an understatement, not only was Derek in a plane crash that may end his career, he was going to ask Amy to run his service, ever since she crashed his car he wouldn't even trust her to hold the suction in an OR, now he wants to give her his department.

"Derek whats the real reason you want Amy to run your service, I mean you have to tell her about the crash she has a right to know, but you have plenty Attendings in your own hospital that could take over for a few weeks, why Amy?"

Derek did tell himself he would be honest with her.

"Lexie Grey has a tumour close to her cerebral cortex, everyone here in Seattle deems it inoperable, everyone else I've contacted won't go near it and that's when I thought of Amy, I've kept track of her career so I know she is capable and I know she isn't the same irresponsible teenager she once was, I need her help"

There it was, the real reason and Addison was really hoping that it wasn't going to be so serious. She knew about Mark and Lexie so she could only imagine what he must be going through. As well as Meredith and Derek.

Lexie was after all a sister to them. In-law may be her official relation to Derek, but she also knew Derek well enough to know as far as he was concerned she was his sister, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for his sisters.

"Derek, I'm sorry. You're right she has really grown up and she has been sober for over a year now. Despite the circumstances I think she would be delighted to know you believe in her enough to ask her to do this".

Derek was relieved to hear this, if Amy was a mess he was out of options.

"Thanks Addison, do me a favour and don't mention Lexie to her, I don't want her to say no without seeing the scans and hearing my game plan"

"I won't, take care Derek".

"Yeah, you too"

Before he lost the nerve to call her Derek immediately hit call on Amy's number and hoped that she answered.

"Derek?"

The fact she sounded confused that he would be calling coupled with the fact that Kathleen said it was a surprise made him realise as much as he loved his sisters he didn't make enough of an effort with them. Hell, the only reason he was calling them today is because he almost died.

"Hey Amy"

"Who died?"

"What nobody, what kind of question is that?"

He knew what kind it was, it was the kind you ask when someone who never calls suddenly does.

"Sorry, I just thought…anyway doesn't matter, what can I do for the great Derek Shepherd"

"Come to Seattle and take over as interim Chief of Neurosurgery?"

Amy couldn't help but burst out into laughter at a comment like that, last time she saw her brother, he was reluctant to even have her in the hospital let alone work there.

"I see you developed a sense of humour since I last saw you"

"I'm being serious Amy, I need your help, I was in that plane crash that was carrying the team of Doctors"

If it wasn't for the serious tone in his voice Amy would think he was trying to make a crude joke, but there was no sign of anything but sincerity in his voice.

"Oh my God, are you okay? who else was on board? Why do you keep almost dying? Oh my God..."

This was what Derek was afraid of, that Amy would start to panic.

"Amy…Amy relax, breathe its okay"

"NO IT FUCKING ISN'T OKAY, YOU WERE IN A PLANE CRASH"

"And I'm alive, I'm okay Amy just relax, breath"

He was right, she just needed to take a deep breath, he was the one telling her not Meredith he wasn't dead. Meredith.

"What about Meredith, was she on board?"

"She was, as well as Mark, but they are both okay, they got it easy. They only have a couple minor cuts and bruises already discharged and medically cleared to go back to work pending a psych evaluation"

"This is insane"

Derek laughed, "You're telling me"

"What about you? You said Meredith and Mark were discharged and got the all clear, you never said anything about you"

"That's why I'm calling and asking you to come to Seattle, my hand got pretty mangled, I may never operate again."

"Oh my God"

"That's why I want you to run my service, the Attendings under me are good, but none of them are good enough to run a department in a hospital as renowned as this"

Now it was Amy's turn to laugh, "What and I am?"

"Yeah, I've been following you career Amy. I know the last time you were here I wasn't exactly welcoming but I believe you are good enough, more than good enough"

Amy was shocked, she always craved Derek's attention and approval, now that she had it, she found it hard to believe.

"You're serious, you want me to come and take over your department?"

"Yes"

"Alright I'll be on the next available flight"

"See you then"

"Oh, and Derek?"

"Yeah Amy?"

"I love you"

It had been a while since she had said that.

"I love you too"


End file.
